[The committee] wanted to avoid seeing the work becoming a political issue in the Tarrant Regional Water District election in May, which was widely seen as a referendum on the project. "There seems to be a high degree of consensus on the development standards, but they wanted to avoid the possibility that the public meetings would be used to debate other things to the detriment of the standards," said [the city official in charge of the project].

Oh, of course. Wouldn't want to have voters distracted by questions such as whether the whole project is a good idea or not, when the debate can get focused on the pros and cons of forbidding two story buildings next to fourteen story ones.